The present invention generally relates to heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and more particularly, to a smart HVAC system capable of performing real-time control of highly variable thermal loads produced by electronic equipment in a data center.
HVAC refers to a technology of indoor environmental comfort. HVAC system design is a major sub-discipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer. HVAC is particularly important in the design of data centers where large amounts of information technology (IT) equipment perform work and generate considerable amounts of heat.
A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. The physical environment of a data center is rigorously controlled. Air conditioning is used to control the temperature and humidity in the data center. The temperature in a data center naturally rises because the equipment in the data center converts electrical power to heat as a byproduct of performing work. Unless the heat is removed, the ambient temperature increases, resulting in electronic equipment malfunction. By controlling the air temperature, the server components at the board level are kept within the manufacturer's specified temperature/humidity range.